How To Position Your Business Uniquely In The Market

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and I'm really excited to talk to this week's guest because she's kind of in a cool little marketing thing that probably doesn't get discussed enough positioning. But before I talk to our guest, we talk to our guest. I'd be remiss if I didn't properly introduce my co host. You know him, you love him. The flight school Sherpa, the brain, the professor. Scott Todd from Scott todd.net landmodo.com if you're not automating your Craigslist and your Facebook postings posting domination.com TheLandgeek Learn anything about anything. Investor ninjas.com Scott Todd how are you? Mark I'm great.

How are you?

I'm great. I'm great. Today's guest is Patty Dominguez. If you're not familiar with Patty, she is a positioning a marketing positioning expert or positioning marketing, however you want to say it. She has over 18 years experience working with Fortune 50 global brands. But what she does, she takes all that experience with the big boys and helps small business owners implement the same concepts. She worked a few companies you may have heard of, may not, I don't know, Kraft Foods, McDonald's, Coca Cola and many others. Perry Dominguez, welcome. How are you?

Mark? I'm very, very happy to be here. Thank you so much for the warm welcome and the hospitality and Scott as well. Thank you. Appreciate you guys.

Yeah, yeah, no worries. So Patty, let's rewind the tape. And how did you get started in position marketing?

Well, I was raised and conditioned in my head to be the first one to go to college. So I went to college and so I got a good grades, went to college and went into corporate. And when I was in corporate, I started out in direct marketing for a small firm. And then I realized I'm like, I want to work for big brands. So I actually did two stints at Kraft Foods. My first one was the whole goal of it was to get as much cross functional experience as possible. And I had the really good fortune of working with a lot of different projects ethic marketing, internal communications, different brand projects. And somewhere in between I was like, I got to get my master's. So I went and got my master's and then I hopped and I went to a different company and I worked with different private equity firms that we did the whole supply chain process of cutting costs. Then 2008 hit and I was Unceremoniously ejected from that company. All good, because it really gave me this. The realization I'm like, I really want to be an entrepreneur. But what I needed to do was get my head right around what that meant, like, how to make it happen. I got called back to craft. I went back a second time, which was really crazy because I didn't think I ever would. But all this, the entire journey for me, excuse me, it led me to this whole concept, this idea with all the brands that I'd worked at, worked with, excuse me, I had this great exposure to conference rooms full of really talented people that would focus on new product introductions. And the last one that I worked on, because I still do some consulting, since 2013, I've been on my own. But this one, the last project that I worked on, there were so many people in a room talking about this new product introduction and the item, the product that was being developed, it was a chocolate chip cookie. And I had this massive epiphany. I'm like, my God, the immense amount of hours and rigor that is being put on introducing this cookie. And yet we as entrepreneurs, nobody's talking about positioning. Nobody's focused on positioning. And that is missing the boat in such a major way. Most people in the entrepreneur space are focused on the red shiny object or hot marketing tactic. And yet the fundamentals of positioning are completely glossed over. It's not anything that somebody thinks about. They'll think about branding. But branding is really the visual elements, such as your logo, your website, the overall creative side of it. But positioning is the business strategy side of it that most small business owners and entrepreneurs are entirely skipping. And that's a problem. So that was the epiphany I had and the big opportunity, and that's really what I've been like, just zeroed in on, is bringing that. The whole logic and the rigor behind it to the people that I work with now in the entrepreneur space.

What are your thoughts?

You know, it's funny, Mark, because when I left, you know, like when I was in corporate America, and then, you know, you go out on your own, there's a lot of things that corporate America does or doesn't do that small businesses do or don't do, right? Like, there. There is a difference between the two of them. And it's funny because, you know, in like a corporate America, for example, you stay in your lane, right? Like, you got your lane. That's what you do. And there's other people that. They all have their own lanes. And that's what you do as entrepreneurs. You, you're crisscrossing all day long. And you know, like, one of the things that you don't hear about, like, like Patty saying is like that, that branding, that positioning, that whole thing. Because at the end of the day, I'm not saying it's wrong, but at the end of the day, like, you just gotta pay the bills, you gotta eat right. Like, who's got time for the, for dealing with this when you've got to figure out how to make the cash register work? So I'd love to know, like, some of Patty's, you know, tips and tricks to kind of get yourself positioned correctly in the marketplace.

Yeah, I definitely think that there's a cost to not doing this, and it's a very heavy cost. In other words, you don't want to skip this part because what happens is in the absence of proper positioning. So if you're, if you have a brand, you are the brand or you have something that you're promoting as an entrepreneur, if you miss a step, what it leads to is what I call just like random acts of, of, you know, social media marketing or marketing in general. And it's all random. And you're just basically shooting from the hip, throwing things at the wall, hoping something sticks. And hope is not a strategy. Right. And so alternatively, where the big opportunity is, is in understanding that if you take the time to do this stuff that's not necessarily sexy, but I always give the equivalent of it's like building a house and only being focused on the paint color and the curtains and the really cool couches you're going to get. And not hiring an arch that is going to build a blueprint so that the general contractor knows how to build a house. Because if you don't have the blueprint, you have a house of cards. So that's literally the equivalent that I give. And once I give that, then people are like, oh, I see, I see why I need this. Yeah, you need it because you have to understand, like your reason for being, the reason why you do what you do so that everything is harmonized in a way so that end customer knows exactly who you are, what you stand for, the proof points, what it is that you're going to give to them, why you're different. Right. Like why you're unique. And really just putting in all these critical factors that creates a substantiation for people to say, I want to work with you. That's what positioning is. Position is not about the product, it's about the mind share that you're capturing inside the brain of that perfect customer.

Interesting. So, Patty, let's just pick on Coca Cola because, you know, I could imagine a board meeting and they're looking at their, their, their marketing budget and they're like, you know what? We just decided that this year we're not gonna spend a billion dollars on marketing because we've done some research. It sounds like there's no one on the planet that hasn't heard of us yet. They continue to spend billions of dollars on marketing and getting that mind share. What is Coca Cola doing and how are they positioning? How can we use them sort of as a case study of great positioning? Because I guess we could argue they are the biggest, most popular brand in the world.

Yeah, I mean, they definitely are. I have not worked at Coca Cola. I worked on a project with Coca Cola, so I want to make sure that that's clear. But in terms of the positioning, so I can't speak for Coca Cola. I can give you an example of that project that I worked on with the chocolate chip cookie, if I can, is they use this whole concept of personalization at scale. Meaning even if it's a cookie, there's different people that are consuming the cookie. And so the idea is who is consuming the cookie, how are they interacting with it, how are they using it? Right. What was their decision making process for grabbing that as opposed to a piece of toast? Let's just say. So when you understand and have hypersensitivity to your end consumer, and there's lots of different ways and different customers that you speak to, that creates personalization at scale. So let's bring that back to the small business owner. That product or service that you sell. The way that different people, the way that different target audiences are interacting with your product or service, it's going. They have to be segmented in a way that. So here's an example. I have a chiropractor who's a client of mine and they had this summit and they're posting it ultimately on the end of that they want to sell their continuity. And so the way that they were bringing in people, well, there's people that are health enthusiasts, there's people that are coaches in the space, and there's other people who are doing what they're doing, say other chiropractors or healthcare professionals. They're coming in with a purpose that is different, each one of those three. So the conversations that we're having by segmenting is different. Ultimately maybe that product or service is the same at the end. Right. But the conversations to get them to buy is different. So that's what the big brands are doing, is that they're segmenting those thought processes on the person who's interacting with that brand. And so segmenting is extremely powerful and can be done in a way that even though you have the same product or service, on the other side of that engagement, it's how you're interacting with them. The things that are going to get their ears perked to say, tell me more. Well, if you're speaking to a health enthusiast, that's different. Tell me more. As opposed to a coach, as opposed to another chiropractor, that tell me more is going to be very different. They're looking at things in a very different worldview. And that's how you create personalization at scale. It's so that they can see you as the solution.

Todd.

You know, Mark, one of the things that we. We talk about in flight school is the four reasons why people buy land. Right? Like, in all of my analysis of all the reasons that people are buying land, they come in, to me, they come into four buckets. I'm not saying there's not a fifth bucket. No one's ever told me about the fifth bucket. So there's four. And ultimately, I think that when you go to market or you go to sale and sell, and this is what we talk about in flight school, too, is like, if you put people into these buckets, these buckets, and you write your ads towards those buckets, you get back people who are trying to solve the problem of the bucket. Right. It's very similar to what Patty was saying. It's the health enthusiast or the chiropractor or this or that. You gotta segregate market. And the way that you do that is you think about, well, what problem are they trying to solve? And then you kind of go after that piece. So it's interesting to hear Patty's take on the segmentation and how to execute that and how we teach that in flight school. It's kind of cool to know, like, that's we're kind of positioning our students or already positioning their businesses too.

No, absolutely. And that kind of leads us to our sponsor today, which is flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can literally transform your life. Start bringing in that passive income, but do it safely, quickly, efficiently. Let Scott Todd be your Sherpa up that mountain of land investing. Compress the learning curve. Learn more. Just go tolandgeek.com forward/training schedule call with Scott Bossman or Mike Zano and see if this is a strategy, a passive income strategy that resonates with you. Okay, so, Patty, what's some of the worst advice you see or hear given in position marketing or just marketing in general?

Yeah, I think one of the worst things that you can do is be a copycat. That is where you're just doing more of the same and you're really commoditizing yourself when you do that. So when somebody is doing the same thing as somebody else, it's clear that they haven't given any thought process to what makes them unique. And so what happens is, all things considered, people are going to make their decision based on price. And so that basically puts you in a very precarious situation because when you are dealing with the price war game, you again, are commoditizing yourself. And again, all things considered, people are going to choose the lower cost. And so why put yourself in that position? And one of the things that is really clear is when I ask, okay, how much is your product or service? And somebody says, well, it's 100 bucks. That's what the market will bear. Well, that comment, that's what the market will bear is only because you haven't given your positioning any thought and you're really reactively pricing and not proactively pricing and saying, well, do I have enough distinctness? Do I have enough uniqueness? Because people love unique and new and easy. And if those things are not in place, you're missing the boat. And so just as a pulse check, right? To anybody, if you're pricing things according to what the market will bear, you're missing out. You're most likely commoditizing yourself. And so now the bigger question is, do a pulse check for yourself and say, do I have enough new? Do I have enough unique doing it? Do I have easy? Because people want easy, and they want to know that you're going to give them something new and fresh, something that they haven't thought about. And so that's where another positioning element comes in, is really focusing on, do you have a magic formula? Right? So you guys have a product or service, it's uniquely yours, right? So there's a blueprint, there's a unique formula, a framework, the secret sauce that you have that they can't get anywhere else, Right? So if you talk about that distinctly and show people the value with proof points, Proof points is another one. You can say that your mousetrap is the best one, but unless you prove it to me, the person on the receiving end is going to be kind of skeptical. They're going to be like, yeah, right, right. So proof points are really essential. And by proof points, I mean social proof video testimonials. So these are all things that the small business owner and entrepreneur can quickly put into place again, as a pulse check for yourself. What kind of proof points do you have to show that what you have actually works? Right. A substantiation of your claim. That's really important as well.

Todd's got a big Cheshire smile.

Here we go, Mark. Here we go. Here we go. Ready? Okay, Patty, look, here's the deal. Mark and I, we are in the exact same business, okay? Like, we both sell land, okay? We. Basically, my business. I'm not gonna say it's an exact mirror of Mark's, but, like, I learned how to do this from Mark, okay? So let me tell you what we do. We. We sell land. Like, I'm talking about dirt. Like, it's just dirt. And sometimes it might be a mud pit, okay? Like, I'm just telling you, like, it's. There's nothing unique about it, okay? Each property is a little bit unique. I'm not trying to say that, but, like, from a business standpoint, Mark offers owner financing, I offer owner financing. He offers a money back guarantee. I offer a money back guarantee. Like, Mark doesn't do anything that I don't do and vice versa, okay? Like, we. We are, like, there. And you could probably say the same thing about all the people probably listen to this podcast is that they're all similar, okay? So the only unique thing that we have is that I have property that literally could be right next door to Mark's or right down the street. It's another property. Like, what is the. Like, what are we doing here? Like, it's. How. How does Mark win in that case? Or how. Better yet, how do I win? I don't want. I don't care about Mark winning.

I care about Mark, right?

Like, who cares about Mark winning? He's a one. Enough. Like, it's my turn to win. Like, literally, how can I position myself differently than Mark when all I have. All I have is the property? And you know what? Our pricing. Our pricing might even be similar. Why? Because it's the market price. We're talking about real estate here.

Yeah, but Patty, just. Just so you know, just so I can get my. My. My argument. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, you should help me, Scott. Todd owns a plane and a boat. I own neither. So clearly someone like me needs a little bit more help positioning to get More sales in him. Would you agree?

Okay, so, so here's the deal with that. All things considered. In this sense, somebody's gonna go with Scott as opposed to Mark or Mark as opposed to Scott because of Mark or because of Scott. So if I am looking to invest, right, presumably, what kind of guidance can I get from Mark or Scott that would be relevant to me, right? So let's say I come on board and I'm like, you know what? I don't like that guy Scott. Let me go with Mark. What are you, Mark, going to give me? So the dis. So all things considered, the things that is different is either Mark or Scott. Now, if I know that you can get me there wherever there is, right, Because I have money, I want land. That success gap you're gonna fill, right, you're gonna fill that with your guidance and what have you, right? Your, your hindsight becomes my foresight. So that value proposition is really strong because you can help me to get what I'm looking for. Because I can't do it on my own, right? So the way that you presented to me, Mark, is going to be different than Scott. If you make it sound like, hey, listen, I can help get you there. And I have a specific formula and this is how I do it. Here's the value of it for you. I can literally time collapse this whole deal for you. And, and here's why, right? If you.

Yeah. So I mean, I position it like happy customers guaranteed, but maybe I should say happy customers guaranteed and we're way more, let's just say, easier to work with than loan. Landmodo.com.

Oh, you can't say that. No, no, I can't say that. You can't, you can't say that because in the transcripts it will, it will get picked up and like it's a negative comment. You have to use hypotheticals more.

Oh yeah, okay.

Okay. So how about, how about this way, the Todd method or the Todd formula is the only one that is going to get you xyz, right? So that's a pretty bold statement. But what if Scott Todd has a specific criteria blueprint that he has come up with that is distinct to Mark, that even though at the end of the day it's a piece of land, but the way that you're going to get me to the promised land of finding the benefits of purchasing that that piece of land is only attainable through Todd and Todd's formula.

So you see, like that, that's the thing, Mark, Mark. I mean, that's a Very good point. Right? Like, it's a very good point because oftentimes, like, you, you and I have seen people that. That they think, okay, you know, like, you here, let me back up for a minute. You used to say, you know.

What.

Was a comment used to say about, like, good, good artists copy. Great artists steal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Picasso.

Right, Picasso. So that's the quote. And so you used to say that. And then, you know, what people did was they went out and they stole other people's, like, stuff. Like, I actually had someone steal my lead. Lead magnet, right? Like, literally, they took the lead magnet, they changed the COVID They're like, deploying it. And I start calling people. I'm like, what are you doing? That's. I wrote that. Like, they wrote that. You didn't write that. I wrote it. And they're like, oh, well, I thought we could use it. Well, who said you could use it? You see, it's not about, as Patty said, it's not about copying, right? Like that.

That's.

That's.

That's stupid. What you have to do is you have to look at what somebody else is doing. So, like, I looked at what Mark was doing, and then I put my own spin on it. Think about the Tony Robbins quote. Find success. Find someone who was successful. I found Mark. You know, copy what he did. I copied what he did. I didn't copy word for word what he did. I copied the strategy. Improve on it. That's the Tony Robbins piece. Improve on it. So I took Mark's successful strategy, I started tinkering with it to put my own strategy on there. Little things that made it my method, okay? Like, my method. Even though the base of the formula might be Mark's, guess what, it's Mark's. It's my own spin on it, right? So now it's my recipe. But you just can't go out and copy people's stuff. And you, you know, I mean, think, like, sit down and do some work and make it yours and you will get it. But if you just take everybody's stuff and like, I'm going to copy that. I'm going to copy that. I'm going to copy that. Well, guess what? You have no uniqueness in the marketplace. And now you're like, well, I don't know why I'm not successful. Well, you're not successful because what are you doing differently than somebody else? And it doesn't have to be major. Position yourself. Put yourself.

You know, it'd be great, Scott, Todd, if there was like a Positioning expert out there that you could just contact and help you do this. Right, Patty, wouldn't that be great if someone actually offered that as a service?

Yeah, I know. I heard there's this really awesome woman that can do that. So, yeah. To just kind of piggyback off of Scott's comment, it's about modeling, right? Because to go back to the Tony Robbins quote, success leaves clues is what he says. And that's exactly right on. That's dead on. So when you look at success leaving clues, it's about what Scott did with you, Mark, is that he modeled what you had created and then he puts his own spin on it.

Right?

Because modeling is different than copying. In that modeling was that there's some success factors that you clearly created, and that's ownable. And he's like, well, yeah, let me follow that track record, because that is dead on. And then you just grab it, you add your own elements to it, and now it becomes the Todd framework, the Todd formula, the Todd blueprint that then he can attract his perfect customer with. Because I promise you, all things considered, you have to create that uniqueness, and then people will gravitate to him and other people will gravitate to you. Right. But creating that distinctness. So, for example, for you, Mark, it sounds like you've been in the game forever or a long time.

I'm a land geek og.

Exactly. So the land geek OG is an ownable term, right. To say, listen, I'm one of the pioneers. I'm the trailblazer, right? And so now that's speaking to the identity of somebody. We're like, well, I want to be a trailblazer, too. Right. And then they're going to follow you for that. So, again, what are those distinct ownable and aspects of what you've created and putting your own spin on it in a way to say Scott can't say he's a trailblazer. You can. Right. But Scott can say he's crafted a formula and it's this way or that way. Again, you just have to find those distinct elements. You're selling land and in some places, a mud pit. And that's okay. That's not why people are gravitating to you. They're doing it because of you.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. So we're at that point now in the podcast, Patty, and I think your mentorship has been invaluable, but we're going to ask you for your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable. Where the art of passive income listeners can go improve their businesses, improve their lives. What have you got?

So I have a quiz that I put together. It's called the positioningquiz.com you can go to positioningquiz.com take this quiz. I think it's about 20 questions and it's going to give you all the elements that you need for your position. From my perspective, against for small business and entrepreneurs. And on the back of that, you'll actually get a little course that I develop. I used to charge for it. I used to charge $147, I believe it was. Now it's all part of that email sequence that you get on the back end absolutely free. It comes with a branding journal, a survey, personality tab, the whole deal. Right. So that's going to help you to get a good head start. And for some people it may be a pulse check, and other people it may be like, wow, I literally have no positioning. And so I need somewhere to start. So that helps to put things into perspective.

I'm doing mine right now before Scott.

So I would go with the OG Trailblazer angle. I'm not kidding.

I'm gonna. I'm gonna do it for sure. I gotta. Now I gotta work to do.

Yeah.

All my stuff. But that's okay because I think you're right. Like, I think the position, like my own positioning at Frontier Properties is probably weak and could be a lot stronger. And, you know, I do have an abundance mentality. I think there's a lot of people that could be in. I mean, millions could be in this market. Like, we have a huge market. That being said, it's nice to position myself as, as McDonald's as a trailblazer of fast food, where, let's just face it, Scott. Todd's. The Del Taco.

Right.

Okay.

Or the. Or maybe, like, if, you know, if we're gonna take it, like, maybe the Whataburger look. But people love whataburger, and there's nothing wrong with it.

But you know what? There's a place for Whataburger in the universe. Just like there's a place for each of you. So, yes, you're dead on, Mark. You can.

You can be the McDonald's. I have no problem with that because I am the Burns Steakhouse.

He got you there, Mark.

How do you know? You know Burns?

No, but it sounds very serious.

It's very serious. And the fact that he just brought up Burns is really uncool. So it's real. I mean, it's. It's very Pavlovian. And it's gonna be really hard to concentrate the rest of the podcast if you've never been to Tampa Bay. There's one restaurant, but I'm gonna check.

This restaurant out, I guess. Right?

Yeah. The Burn Steakhouse is the place to go.

Okay.

And it's so good. I used to haze Scott Todd about being like. Like, not a foodie. Then he took me there, and it's like, drop the mic moment.

Wow.

And it's horrible. It's like he's now positioned himself as the foodie in our community, and it's just terrible. So thanks, Scott, for ruining that for me. Anyways, what is your tip of the week?

All right, Mark, check this out. Let me. Let me bring this thing up.

Here you go.

Look at this. Some of you are like, what's this guy even talking about? Right? But like, Mark, look at my virtual background. It's pretty cool, isn't it? Like, you got a QR code, you can zoom virtual backgrounds. And what you'll notice is that right over my shoulder here, I have a QR code. And so, you know, you can make actionable backgrounds. All right here from this website called, of all things, actionable backgrounds. And so here I'll put in the chat for you. It's called actionable background dot com. And you go in there, background. You go in there, you plug that in, you can put in your logo. Okay. It's not the video that you have, but look at this, man. I got a QR code. Someone scans it, like, while I'm talking. Guess what? They're taking right to the website. You know, I can just do it. All I gotta do is fire up my camera here and boom. Look at that. It got. Got it right on my. Right on my phone right there.

That's awesome.

The website, Patty, is it.

Is it awesome?

Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is pretty cool.

Why is it so cool? I think that no one who scans QR codes, I think he's positioning himself as the biggest zoom geek out there.

There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Well, he's on the right track because I. Well, he's on the right track because I heard that zoom is now more valuable. It's been valued higher than American Airlines. Can you believe that? There you go.

Wow. Okay, so you do like the QR code idea.

I do. I do.

Positioning, yes.

They give it a big thumbs up.

See, look, I don't know why, but over on the left side of the screen, across from it should have my name I'm not sure why that's not there. But also, if I don't like the doorway that you're seeing here, Mark, I can put in my own background image. So if you had something else, you could put that in there. The QR code still shows up. I'm telling you, man. Oh, I see some branding down there on the right side too, Cardify. But look, I'm telling you, see their branding, their positioning. I can position. Life's pretty good, man.

I like it. I like it only because Patty gave it her blessing. I was initially skeptical. My tip of the week is become a positioning expert. And the best place to go is Patty Dominguez dot com. She's got a podcast as well. She's got a blog, and she's just cool. Like, she's got this 10 random facts about me. Don't judge that. That in and of itself is worth going to the website. So that's really cool. So Patty Dominguez.com would be. Would be great. I want to thank the listeners and remind them the only way. The only way we're gonna get the quality guests like a Patty Dominguez is if you do us three little favors. You got to subscribe, you got a rate, you got to review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review to supportlandgeek.com we're going to send you for free the $97 passive income launch kit course, as well as the whole tailing course. How to double your money, 30 days or less. Patty Dominguez, are we good?

We're good. Thank you so much to the two of you for a very fun time. I appreciate you both, and I wish you continued success.

Thank you. Patty, Scott, Todd, are we good?

We're good.

Mark, are you ready to do this?

Sure. Why not?

One, two, three, let's.

Freedom.

Thanks, everybody. Patty's like, oh, gosh, I knew they were gonna do that at the end. I don't talk about positioning themselves.

No, that's not true. I would have joined you. I just didn't know what you were doing.

Yeah, we should probably fill you in on that. All right, thanks, everybody.